Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin used his veto power to send a bill back to the Democrat-controlled legislature with a clever change.

The legislature last month passed a bill introduced by State Delegate Laura Jane Cohen (D-Fairfax), a far-left former school board member, requiring schools to text and email parents each school year, admonishing them to lock up any guns they own. Youngkin added a provision that would require schools to also communicate with parents before transitioning a child to a different gender.

Democrats previously voted down a similar bill, but now they will have to vote whether to accept or reject the edit, potentially putting them on the record in an election year that they oppose parental involvement in the most intimate aspect of their child’s life. Virginia holds elections in odd-numbered years, and Democrat Terry McAuliffe lost the election to Youngkin in 2019 after saying he didn’t believe parents should play a role in what goes on in schools.

Youngkin sailed to victory after lashing out at Loudoun County Public Schools for covering up a rape by a “genderfluid” boy in order to pass a transgender bathroom policy. 

Cohen’s bill required school boards to “require the notification of the parent of each student enrolled in the local school division, to be sent by email and, if applicable, SMS text message within 30 calendar days succeeding the first day of each school year, of (i) the importance of securely storing any prescription drug, as defined in § 54.1-3401, present in the household and (ii) the parent’s responsibility, in accordance with § 18.2-56.2, to safely store any firearm present in the household.”

Instead of vetoing it, Youngkin continued with the theme of parental communication, adding a requirement that:

Local school boards shall develop protocols by which each public elementary or secondary school principal or his designee shall, as soon as practicable, (i) inform at least one parent of a minor student enrolled in such school if such minor requests that any school employee participate while at school in (a) social affirmation of the minor student’s gender incongruence or (b) the transition of such minor to a felt or stated gender different from the minor student’s biological sex and (ii) request and receive permission from at least one parent of a minor student enrolled at such school prior to the implementation at such school of any plan concerning any gender incongruence experienced by such minor, including any counseling of such minor at school that includes a provision for parental participation.

Cohen called the amendment “garbage,” telling RadioIQ, “For some people, teachers are the only ones they can talk to in their lives.”

As this reporter’s book Race to the Bottom found, Cohen has a child who has severe cognitive disabilities and who believes she is transgender. She ran for the Fairfax County School Board in 2019 to displace a Republican who had tried to stop the board from rushing through a transgender policy in spite of public comment indicating widespread opposition. Cohen was elected with assistance from Moms Demand Action, a national anti-gun group funded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg.

On Wednesday, the legislature will hold a floor debate on the provision requiring parental permission for gender transition, and Democrats will have to vote on whether they think schools should transition a child’s gender while keeping it secret from their parents.

Democrats have only slim majorities in each chamber, so Youngkin’s proposal would become law if even a few Democrats support it. The Daily Wire asked three vulnerable House Democrats — Joshua Cole (Fredericksburg), Josh Thomas (Gainesville), and Michael Feggans (Virginia Beach) — their positions, and none replied.

In 2023, Republicans introduced a similar bill called Sage’s Law, named after a girl from rural Virginia who was secretly gender-transitioned by her high school, setting in motion her being sex trafficked to Baltimore, where the FBI found her locked in the home of a convicted sex offender. A Baltimore court refused to return her to Virginia after a school counselor allegedly speculated that Sage’s mother might not accept her new gender. Instead, she was placed in a foster home for Baltimore’s most troubled boys, and was abused again.

Despite the heartbreaking story, Democrats voted down Sage’s Law last session. It was re-introduced this year, but denied a hearing, at which the story would have been told. (Read about Sage’s horror story here.)

Sage’s mother later filed a lawsuit against the Appomattox County Public Schools, alleging its counselors summoned Sage to discuss her gender eight times during the first 12 days of the 2021-22 school year. It also alleged that the counselors were providing major psychiatric care they were not qualified or authorized to perform.